Hong Kong prosecutors lose appeal against acquittal of media tycoon Jimmy Lai in intimidation case
- Lai was accused of verbally threatening an Oriental Daily reporter during a 2017 vigil at Victoria Park, but magistrate cleared him of the charge
- Prosecutors argue magistrate had ‘clearly misdirected herself, misunderstood facts’
Hong Kong prosecutors on Monday lost an appeal against a magistrate’s decision to clear media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying of intimidating a reporter from a rival newspaper four years ago.
On Monday, Mr Justice Andrew Chan Hing-wai of the High Court concluded the trial magistrate had erred in law when considering one of two key elements of the alleged offence: whether Lai had the intention to alarm the reporter.
But the judge ultimately dismissed the appeal after finding prosecutors were not able to prove the magistrate had reached a “perverse” conclusion in respect to the other element: whether Lai had made a threat to physically injure the reporter.
“In order to succeed, the appellant must prove both the magistrate’s findings were wrong,” Chan explained. “The appeal therefore must fail.”
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Hong Kong prosecutors lose appeal against verdict of media tycoon Jimmy Lai intimidation case
During the trial last year, the reporter, named only as “X”, testified that Lai swore at him and threatened to find someone to “mess [him] up”, after he took pictures and videos of the tycoon.
